increased and a high level of anonymity has come to be
seen as routine expectation of any trading algorithm.

Execution consulting was the highest scoring area
last year at 5. 70, but this fell back this year to a still
respectable 5. 58, while client support increased from

5. 57 to 5. 65 over the same period. Both these areashave been of crucial concern in recent years due tothe aforementioned commodification of algos, whichmeans providing high level service and in-depth con-sulting are more important than ever before.

That Asian providers seem to already be providing a
high-quality execution consulting service bodes well
for the future, though they have set themselves a high
bar. Similarly, client support is set to become more important in the future as buy-siders become much more
selective about their algo providers, again driven by